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If
Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’ were
re-staged in Richmond, Va., today, the
imperious Senators would still do the bloody
murder. But, the victim would be the body
politic, not the body of the great Caesar.
The unkindest cuts would be from the
Republican Senators who vote, again, to raise
taxes.
Each
one of them is a Brutus to faithful
Republicans. The senators run about crying,
“Reliable, sustainable revenue!”, instead
of “Peace, freedom, and liberty”.
Actually,
these RINOs should say, “Stop me
before I tax again.”
As
our Ides of March approach, the same
Republican senators who voted for the largest
tax hike in 400 years of Virginia history are
getting ready to surpass their previous
efforts. In ’04 they caterwauled that
essential services and infrastructure needed
‘investments’ with higher taxes. Much to
their utter, clueless amazement, the growing
economy produced more than the 8.2 percent
increase needed to pay for all the new
spending – before the taxes even began.
The
RINO tax hike created a $1.2 billion tax
surplus. But pride doth not admit error, so
the senators will spend every penny of the
surplus and demand more from the plebians to
‘invest’ (more taxes) in transportation.
This time it’s another $1 billion a year in
the first four years.
What
of all these billions and percents the
senators pontificate and posture upon?
Senatorial oratory, like Brutus’ eulogy,
calls names – free lunch, flat earth, gnats,
extremists, etc. Yet, there is a truth to be
spoken, like Antony’s eulogy to what these
taxes mean.
And
there’s a reason why Virginia’s Antony
would mock today’s senators worse than the Wall
Street Journal just did. That truth is in
the Harvard Alumni magazine (Jan-Feb 2006)
article, “The Middle Class on the
Precipice”. Coincidentally, Harvard’s
motto, ‘Veritas’, is Latin for
‘truth.”
The
article compares the average American family
in the 1970s to 2004. The same average family
makes more money but has less to spend freely
at the end of the month. In fact, the average
family, the 50th percentile median, has $800
less a year ($66.67 per month less). The
numbers tell this tale worthy of the Bard.
The
average family, two parents and two kids, in
the 1970s made $41,670.00 adjusted to
today’s dollars. There was one wage
earner in the family. The average family, two
parents and two kids, in 2004 made $73,770.00
in current dollars. So, where did the money
go?
The
per cent of money spent on food, clothing, and
major appliances went down. The cost of
entertainment (including computers), housing
and health insurance went up. Others washed
out, like more on pets and less on tobacco.
But the loss of money for personal choices,
economic freedom, wasn’t this losing balance
sheet. It was taxes.
Harvard
Magazine blithely commented that the rate
of taxation, from all sources, increased from
24 percent to only 30 percent.
Stop the presses!
Do the math.
If the tax rate – that progressive
tax from the Communist Manifesto – instead
had stayed at 24 percent - the average family
would have $4,426.20 more of their own money,
which they earned, today.
Let’s
see it again: 24
percent of $73,770 is $17,824.80; 30 percent
is $22,131. That’s $4,426.20 lost to taxes
– for the same income.
That’s $368.85 per month the average
family is spending on "permanent,
reliable, sustainable revenues for vital
infrastructure and public services."
Uh-huh.
Bull. Ask the firefighter married to a teacher
and with two kids what an extra $368.85 a
month means to them. The average family’s
taxes didn’t increase to pay the salaries of
the teachers and firefighters. Those meager
increases were covered and surpassed by
inflation. The growth of local, state and
federal governments exceeds inflation. In our
Commonwealth it means over 100 percent growth
in spending in less than 10 years. RINO
Senators and their few lapdogs in the House of
Delegates propose more of the same.
These
privileged persons, veterans of so many golf,
hunting and what-not trips from lobbyists can
laugh that this tax or that is only the price
of a MacDonald’s supersize meal. How
amusing.
It
doesn’t matter to working Virginians whether
they pay the Heinz 57 taxes in the (truly
laughingly called) Virginia Senate Leadership
plan from their left or right pocket. Multiple
smaller taxes are still paid by the same
folks. Working Virginians pay. Every penny is
part of the extra $5,306.20 that governments
take – just because both parents work
harder.
What
arrogance of power.
The
gas tax is going to be increased – wholesale
– another 5 percent. Every penny will be
passed on to Virginians at the retail pump.
Yet, the RINOs are so cynical they say anyone
who doesn’t want to pay the taxes, doesn’t
have to do so. Just keep all your receipts and
file them twice a year. They do so assuming
that half of all Virginians won’t keep such
records and will eat the tax.
There’s
a reason our motto is Sic Semper Tyrannis.
It’s time to let the petty, wannabe tyrants
know to stop before you tax us again. If not
now, in 2007, Virginia, in 2007.
--
February 27, 2006
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